There’s really no need to beat about the bush with a lengthy review: this
is every bit as good and as thoroughly recommendable as Volume 3 of this series
to which I recently gave a strong recommendation (8.572123: Bargain of the
Month – see review).
As on that earlier CD, the programme combines one of Haydn’s earliest masses
– the Great Organ Solo Mass, which was among his first sacred compositions
for the Esterházy court – with one of the better-known later masterpieces,
the Heiligmesse of 1796, composed after his return to Esterháza.

The Heiligmesse is in no way an inferior work to the ‘Nelson’ Mass
on the earlier volume – as with so many of Haydn’s works it’s really only
the eye-catching nickname, which in any case really is a misnomer, that has
made that mass more popular than the other late masses.

As its name implies, the Great Organ Solo Mass contains a prominent
part for the instrument. It’s by no means a mere adjunct to the main menu;
it’s very well worth hearing in its own right, combining lyrical and thoughtful
elements. As before, all concerned give of their best, including on this occasion
Dongsok Shin, who has kindly supplied MusicWeb International with information
about the organ employed in this and other recordings in the series, not the
digital organ at Trinity Church which replaced the instrument damaged in the
9/11 attack, but a small pipe instrument imported for the purpose – please
see footnote at the end of John Sheppard’s review
of the complete set.

In that review John Sheppard made the complete eight-disc set from which these
individual volumes are being reissued his Recording of the Month (8.508009).
He singled out Ann Hoyt, the soprano in both the masses on Volume 5, for special
praise and I can only echo his comment that she is the equal of the much better-known
soloists on the versions by Hickox, Guest and Bernstein. She is, however only
the first among equals: the other soloists also acquit themselves extremely
well, as do the choir and orchestra, and the direction is thoroughly idiomatic.
I didn’t even object to J Owen Burdick’s habit of slowing at the end of each
section, which was John Sheppard’s minor criticism.

In fact, my only reservation about the two volumes which have come my way
is that the purchase of either will probably make you wish that you had gone
for the complete set, available for an incredibly inexpensive £28.50 or so
in the UK.

William Hedley also reviewed the complete set. Though he recommended it, he
had more reservations than JS or myself, believing that energy and drive had
been achieved at the expense of the essential Haydn elements of charm, grace
and smiling benevolence. I understand where he’s coming from – both performances
bounce along a little relentlessly at times – but the movements which he selects
in the Heiligmesse, the openings of the Gloria, Credo and
Sanctus are surely exactly the right places for the greatest stress
on jubilation. The more subdued sections, such as the et incarnates est
of the Credo, are subject to a more meditative approach. Indeed,
WH himself admits that the ensuing Crucifixus is very successful –
it’s one of the many wonders of this work and of the performance.

The recording is good, offering a convincing soundstage with just the right
degree of reverberation, and the notes are brief but to the point. The absence
of texts and translations is regrettable, especially when they would have
taken so little space to include, but their availability online partly mitigates
that, as does the link to them provided for subscribers to the Naxos Music
Library. The Library also offers the booklet and insert to those who prefer
to listen before buying. I can practically guarantee that anyone who streams
this music first from there will want to purchase either the single CD or
the complete set.

I shall not be abandoning other performances of these works, especially those
in the Chandos complete series of Haydn Masses with Hickox at the helm (Grosse
Orgelsolomesse with Missa Cellensis on CHAN0674; Heiligmesse
with Nikolaimesse on CHAN0645) but I shall certainly return to these
Naxos performances too.